The World Socialist Movement (WSM) is an

international organisation An international organization or international organisation (see spelling differences), also known as an intergovernmental organization or an international institution, is a stable set of norms and rules meant to govern the behavior of states an ...

socialist parties Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

created in 1904 with the founding of the Socialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB). The member parties share a common classical Marxist worldview and an adherence to

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes th ...

defined as a distinct

economic system An economic system, or economic order, is a system of production, resource allocation and distribution of goods and services within a society or a given geographic area. It includes the combination of the various institutions, agencies, entit ...

from

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...

. As a result, the parties of the WSM are held in sharp contrast to

social democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...

political parties and Marxist–Leninist movements. In contrast to

social democratic parties Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...

, the WSM parties do not pursue social and economic reforms to

, nor do they seek political office in electoral politics and they do not focus on so-called progressive causes, believing such actions to be irrelevant to their fundamental goal of socialism. In contrast to Marxist–Leninist

communist parties A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

, they do not subscribe to the theories of

imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic powe ...

vanguardism Vanguardism in the context of Leninist revolutionary struggle, relates to a strategy whereby the most class-conscious and politically "advanced" sections of the proletariat or working class, described as the revolutionary vanguard, form orga ...

and

democratic centralism Democratic centralism is a practice in which political decisions reached by voting processes are binding upon all members of the political party. It is mainly associated with Leninism, wherein the party's political vanguard of professional revo ...

, believing such practices to be antithetical to the realisation of socialism. The WSM defines socialism as a moneyless society based on common ownership of the means of production, production for use and social relations based on cooperative and democratic associations as opposed to bureaucratic hierarchies. Additionally, the WSM includes statelessness, classlessness and the abolition of

wage labor Wage labour (also wage labor in American English), usually referred to as paid work, paid employment, or paid labour, refers to the socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer in which the worker sells their labour power unde ...

as characteristics of a socialist society—characteristics that are usually reserved to describe a

communist society In Marxist thought, a communist society or the communist system is the type of society and economic system postulated to emerge from technological advances in the productive forces, representing the ultimate goal of the political ideology of co ...

, but that both

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

and

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes th ...

and

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

Object

The WSM sees its function as the proliferation of socialist ideas and the dissemination of structural analyses and critiques of capitalism as well as to correct misconceptions regarding socialism and to make people aware of the structural issues inherent to capitalism while facilitating open debate regarding the future organisation of a post-capitalist society.

Positions

Capitalism

The WSM maintains that

is a regressive and backwards system given modern civilisations' current level of technological and economic development. Regardless of how progressive capitalism becomes, it cannot meet the needs of the majority of the population and solve its inherent structural issues. The WSM as an organisation does not participate in

labor union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (s ...

activity,

social activism Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

or progressive movements, although individual members may and are permitted to do so as long as they remain within the context of economic/social rather than political activism. The WSM perceives such activity (such as support for organised labour unions) to be within the scope of the current capitalist system and therefore insufficient for bringing about fundamental change in the structure of society because the demands of such activities are to reform capitalism. The WSM is also differentiated from the majority of socialist parties that have become defined by their strategy and immediate demands—and in the case of social democratic parties—preoccupied with gaining and maintaining political office, adopting capitalist perspectives in the process.

Socialism

The WSM defines

in its classical formulation as a "system of society based upon the common ownership and democratic control of the means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth by and in the interest of the community". Socialism is characterised as a stateless,

property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...

less, post-monetary economy based on

calculation in kind __NOTOC__ Calculation in kind or calculation in-natura is a way of valuating resources and a system of accounting that uses disaggregated physical magnitudes as opposed to a common unit of calculation. As the basis for a socialist economy, it wa ...

, a free association of producers (

workplace democracy Workplace democracy is the application of democracy in various forms (examples include voting systems, debates, democratic structuring, due process, adversarial process, systems of appeal) to the workplace. It can be implemented in a variety ...

) and free access to

goods In economics, goods are items that satisfy human wants and provide utility, for example, to a consumer making a purchase of a satisfying product. A common distinction is made between goods which are transferable, and services, which are not ...

and services produced solely for

use Use may refer to: * Use (law), an obligation on a person to whom property has been conveyed * Use (liturgy), a special form of Roman Catholic ritual adopted for use in a particular diocese * Use–mention distinction, the distinction between using ...

and not for exchange.

Impossibilism

The WSM takes an anti-Leninist stance, arguing that a

vanguard party Vanguardism in the context of Leninist revolutionary struggle, relates to a strategy whereby the most class-conscious and politically "advanced" sections of the proletariat or working class, described as the revolutionary vanguard, form organ ...

and

single-party state A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other partie ...

is antithetical to the development of socialism and prone to corruption. The WSM believes that socialism can only be achieved through mass support for socialism and educating the public toward that end and neither promotes nor opposes political reforms of capitalism (such as social democracy), criticising such reforms as being ineffective for promoting a fundamental restructuring of society toward socialism. The WSM is also opposed to a transition stage between capitalism and socialism, such as

market socialism Market socialism is a type of economic system involving the public, cooperative, or social ownership of the means of production in the framework of a market economy, or one that contains a mix of worker-owned, nationalized, and privately owned ...

, arguing that such a transitional stage is no longer necessary given modern technology.

Activity

The WSM's activities are solely based on the realisation of socialism and nothing unrelated else to socialism, such as social activism and campaigning for non-socialist, socially progressive causes that are irrelevant to socialism as a distinct system from capitalism. The WSM do stand in elections on occasion as they believe that sending delegates to parliament is a useful tool within the

socialist revolution Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revoluti ...

as an additional measure along with a bottom-up reorganisation of society on the basis of socialism. This view places them within the context of

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

and therefore distinguishes them from many

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessar ...

organisations that may support the idea of socialism as the WSM sees it, but not the Marxist tactics they propose.

Publications

''World Socialist'' (

OCLC OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It wa ...

br>474640161
was a bi-annual journal that was produced by the international from 1983 to 1987 and the international's only publication to date (''World Socialism'' 69 was a multilingual publication by the Socialist Party of Great Britain). The ''Western Socialist Journal'' was published from 1933 to 1980, but from 1939 involved at least two companion parties in North America. ''Socialist Comment'' involved at least two companion parties in Australasia.

Radio

The World Socialist Party of New Zealand run ''Radio Imagine'' out of Manurewa,

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

Companion parties

All the parties began as offshoots from the Socialist Party of Great Britain. WSM members in countries without a companion party of their own are as a rule SPGB members. It is made up of the following parties: * The following were companion parties of the WSM, but have disaffiliated or been expelled: *

League of Democratic Socialists The League of Democratic Socialists (german: Bund Demokratischer Sozialisten) was an Austrian political party formerly affiliated with the World Socialist Movement (WSM). Unlike most other WSM parties, it did not start as an offshoot of the Socia ...

(Austria) * Socialist Party of North America (1911) In 1979, a group used to exist in Sweden with the name World Socialist Group ('). This group believed an altered version of the Object and Declaration of Principles of the Companion Parties of Socialism. It was not a political party, but it wanted there to be a socialist party in Sweden.

Notes

External links

* {{Authority control Political internationals Socialist parties International Socialist Organisations